Fashion week — which really should be called fashion month, or fashion six weeks, or fashion long-enough-to-get-blisters-and-your-period — finally hit the Continent, and Vogue's Model.Live was there to bring you the highlights as experienced by three young models named Madeline, Cato, and Austria. And at last the series seems to be settling into a groove. After the jump, a recap of all the riveting modeling action, plus a clip above, which includes Cato's almost touchingly un-self-aware utterance of the line, "If I don't get it this time, you know, I already did Prada once."
It is hard to break into the show circuit. Designers are so given to rotating their regular crop of supes among themselves that they will make audiences wait for the top girls to rush over from the previous show rather than settle for a newbie. The big catwalks are awash with the Catherine McNeils and Lily Donaldsons of this world, meaning that thousands of hopefuls — who have already run the gauntlet of getting agency representation, building their books up to competitive standard, and developing a runway body by any means necessary — are competing for just a couple of spots in the shows people notice. Most new (Austria) and newish (Madeline) models need to get lucky to even book one of the tiny, overlooked shows that crowd the penumbra of the main fashion week calendars. And then there's Cato Van Ee. I really want to like Cato. She seems intelligent. She has cool parents — parents who wisely got their daughter to finish high school despite the interruption of covers for L'Officiel and Dutch Elle and, oh yeah, that Prada/Miu Miu show exclusive. Maybe I've just been having a blah time with the clients since leaving my beloved New York, or maybe it's just the general fatigue of so many time zones and jets and trams and buses and tiny models apartments. Maybe I am an incorrigible grump. But I recognize a sort of Patrician smugness in Cato's face when she collapses in gales of ohmaigawds when her booker tells her the news that, yes, she has booked Prada for a second season, and that makes me want to kick her in the shins. Especially when she does her "Wooo! Prada + Cato, best team ever!" hand jive in the back seat of her private car. Things aren't going so well for Madeline and Austria. Austria looks sullen and exhausted at her castings — something which I can confirm was not simply due to editing. In person, Austria looks so much like a little girl, albeit a tall one, it's anybody's guess why IMG is pushing the child whose age was given as 14 in February so hard right now — with a few more years education and maturity, she could be, well, a humbler but no less successful Cato. Madeline glows and her body is phenomenal, but Milan just isn't much of a market for unknown girls with short hair. So Madeline and Austria cut out for Paris castings early, while Cato walks Prada, Just Cavalli, Dolce And Gabbana, Allessandro Dell'Acqua, and probably 23 other well-regarded shows in her unperspiring, non-acneic spare time. Bitch. Next week: the light at the end of the tunnel... Paris. Earlier: Vogue's Model.Live: Crap Instructions From A Casting AgentVogue's Model.Live Sets New Online Series Record For Time Taken To Jump The SharkVogue's Model.Live: The New York Fashion week Hustle BeginsVogue's Model.Live: Models Are Strange, When You're An AgentVogue's Model.Live: Castings Can Really Be A GrindVogue's Model.Live: Don't Get Famous, And Other Gems Of Parental WisdomPoints For Effort: Vogue Reality Series About Modeling Surprisingly Realistic, A Little Boring Related: Model.Live Episode 8